Well, the game didn’t turn out the way anyone expected. I know I expected it to be a close game that could go either way. Nope.

Eagles 40, Chiefs 22

Not a misprint, and the game was not nearly as close as the score would indicate.

But that’s sports – it builds character among other things. I subscribe to World, a Christian news magazine. Every Friday I receive an email from their arts and culture editor, currently a young lady named Chelsea Boes, not a sports fan. She wrote on Friday before the Super Bowl:

As a lifelong nerd, my core question about sports is, “Why can’t they all just get their own ball?”

Chelsea doesn’t get it, and I had to write and tell her so:

— Beginning of my email —

I know you’re trying to be cute, but you’re missing the point. Life is filled with battles, going back to Genesis 3. The Apostle Paul talked about the real battle:

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (Ephesians 6.10 – 13, NKJV)

Paul also uses sports as a metaphor for the real battle:

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9.24 – 27, NKJV)

Years ago, I taught at an Air Force leadership school where we used sports to teach a variety of lessons. On our playing field, prominently posted, was a famous quote from General Douglas MacArthur:

On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other days, on other fields will bear the fruits of victory.

You don’t have to watch, but please don’t deprecate the idea of sports.

— end of my email —

I wrote yesterday that God would get a shout-out no matter who won, and I was right:

God blessed us. So I want to give thanks to him. Thank you God. Thank you, Jesus. – Philadelphia Eagles’ Coach Nick Sirianni

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. (1 Corinthians 9.24, NKJV)

It’s Super Bowl Sunday, one of the few events enjoyed(?) by a large majority of Americans. This year’s “Game of the Century” features the Philadelphia Eagles versus the Kansas City Chiefs, trying to win their third straight Super Bowl, something that’s never been done before.

As in the College Football Championship, there are Christians on both sides. The Kansas City Chiefs chaplain, Marcellus Casey, says this about Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes:

Pretty simple life. Loves his wife. Loves his kids. Studies God’s word. Prays. Works hard. Lives with humility. Admits mistakes. Supports teammates. Gives glory to God in victory.

Jalen Hurts, the Eagles quarterback said:

I’m a man of God. Waking up every morning and having a routine where I can gain some wisdom, learn His Word, and just walk by the Spirit, I strive to do that daily. And I challenge myself to spread that Word organically. – Sports Spectrum

So I think God will get a shout-out in the post-game interviews no matter who wins.

All that said, my main topic today is teamwork. Football is the ultimate team sport. Those quarterbacks don’t block for themselves, and they don’t throw the ball to themselves. And when each quarterback is on the bench, they have to rely on their team’s defense to to shut down the other guy. But even though it’s a team game, some football players like to draw attention to themselves when they make a good play. “Look what I did!” I’m not saying that’s wrong, but it is something that happens.

Here’s a story from another arena where that didn’t happen…

The movie Exodus about the founding of the state of Israel after World War 2 came out in December 1960. An epic movie (three hours and 28 minutes long!), it won only one Academy Award: Best Music Score. The Julliard-trained piano duo Ferrante and Teicher recorded it immediately, and it was #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1961. Click the picture below to listen to it: only three minutes.

I was a freshman in high school when it came out. I remember vividly the following summer sitting in someone’s house in my grandmother’s tiny town in West Virginia with a 45 RPM record learning that song. I developed my own arrangement “inspired by” Ferrante and Teicher, and I’ve played it ever since. A few years ago I played it for my son David’s piano students at a recital. One of the parents told us that when “Theme from Exodus” was #2 on the pop chart, it was behind an Elvis Presley song. Can you imagine?

Back to teamwork. When I was a student at Clemson University, Ferrante and Teicher came for a concert. They walked out on stage and said something like:

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. We are glad to be with you tonight. And we know that everyone wants to know, you know, who we are. (pause) We are Ferrante and Teicher.

And to this day, I don’t know who was who at that concert. Think about it. If it sets up like that, there’s no point to try to outshine the other guy! Their individual identities were irrelevant. That’s a team.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Philippians 2.3, 4, NKJV)

My brother-in-law Paul lives in the tiny town of Piedmont, SC, population just over 5,000. Now retired, he begins every day by taking his German shepherd, Catfish, for a walk, where he’s always finding something interesting or beautiful to photograph. Here’s a story he posted on Facebook last week.

Catfish and I noticed this old tombstone laying next the sidewalk on our early morning walk the other day, so we drove back to it in my truck, scooped it up, and yesterday we took it to the Piedmont Museum, which is operated by our local Piedmont Historical Preservation Society. Dr. Anne Peden used some gravestone rubbing paper to bring out the aged, illegible writing. The rubbing revealed the decedent was named Henry Turner and he had died as an infant in 1903. Anne then used “Find a Grave” and discovered that the stone had been removed from Rose Hill, the old cotton mill cemetery in Greenville County, more than a mile from where the stone was found. The next phase of the repatriation of the granite marker is to contact Jane Woods McClain and her husband Mark to access their extensive knowledge of the Rose Hill cemetery. Soon this stone should be back in its rightful place. Thanks to all involved. – Paul Porter, Facebook, January 29, 2025.

I’m amazed that Paul lives at a leisurely enough pace that he can (1) notice the gravestone, (2) take the time to pick it up, and (3) take it to someone who would know what to do with it. It may be unlikely that anyone would even notice that the gravestone was missing from an old cemetery, 121 years after young Henry died, but Paul thinks it important that the gravestone be where it belongs.

Some of us (me!) tend to move so fast that we miss opportunities to serve in small, perhaps unnoticed ways. My friend and Navigator mentor Skip Gray used to say that Jesus had a 3 mph ministry. “He didn’t go jogging through Judea, sprinting across Samaria, or galloping in Galilee. He WALKED wherever he went.”

Now as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth. John 9.1, NKJV)

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him. (Matthew 9.9, NKJV)

Jesus saw a man…because he was moving slowly enough.

I wrote recently about the intentional blindness of the folks who still believe the earth is flat, even when presented with evidence that disproves their theories. Two blog readers made some astute comments that I don’t want you to miss.

First, my son Mark shared the following:

Reminds me of the dwarves in The Last Battle [of Chronicles of Narnia]. Not even Aslan can save them because they refuse to believe what is happening around them. 

Or tangentially, Upton Sinclair:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

– from I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked

Replace salary with anything else important. Self-worth. Worldview. Ego. YouTube follower count. 

Sometimes it’s far easier to turn away from the truth than admit you’ve been living a lie. – Mark Ewell, email on January 23, 2025

Wow. I hope I’m not holding on to false beliefs .

Then long-time friend and blog-reader Laura McGlothlin shared this with a really good verse:

I guess it takes all kinds!!

Claiming to be wise, they became fools. (Roman 1.22, ESV)

Psalm 27 has been a favorite for a long time…

I was talking with a friend of mine recently, and he was differentiating trials you get “through” to the other side and trials you don’t. I summarize his musings this way:

Let’s say there are two types of situations:

• Type 1: it’s temporary, there is a fix, and life will return to normal or even better than before.
• Type 2: it’s permanent, there is not a fix, and life will not return to “normal.”

His neuropathy is a Type 2, there’s no known cure. My knee replacements were Type 1. And, yes, this prostate glitch is a Type 1. There are treatments for enlarged prostates.

Here’s a newsflash: LIFE is a Type 2. There’s even a verse for that:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4.16 – 18, NKJV)

But along the way, God delivers us from “Type 1” situations. That’s what Psalm 27 is about.

1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When the wicked came against me To eat up my flesh, My enemies and foes, They stumbled and fell.
3 Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; Though war may rise against me, In this I will be confident.
4 One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD, And to inquire in His temple. (Psalm 27.1 – 4, NKJV)

David expects deliverance:

11 Teach me Your way, O LORD, And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.
12 Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries; For false witnesses have risen against me, And such as breathe out violence.
13 I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. (Psalm 27.11 – 13, NKJV)

I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. The Lord is the strength of my life: of whom shall I be afraid?

There’s a beautiful choral arrangement of Psalm 27, done very well by The Stonebriar Community Church Choir of Frisco, Texas. It’s worth the five minutes.

“The Lord Is My Light and My Salvation” by the Stonebriar Community Church Choir

Back to the psalms, when I read, I look for themes and any special word God might have for me.

Psalm 25 has a lot of guidance/teaching verses:

Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day. (Psalm 25.4, 5, NKJV)

Good and upright is the LORD; Therefore He teaches sinners in the way. The humble He guides in justice, And the humble He teaches His way. (Psalm 25.8, 9, NKJV)

Who is the man that fears the LORD? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses. He himself shall dwell in prosperity, And his descendants shall inherit the earth. The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, And He will show them His covenant. (Psalm 25.12 – 14, NKJV)

And throughout, David is acutely aware of his sin:

Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; According to Your mercy remember me, For Your goodness’ sake, O LORD…For Your name’s sake, O LORD, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great. (Psalm 25.7, 11, NKJV)

Then he closes with a prayer I’m praying with one word change:

Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me, For I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart have enlarged; Bring me out of my distresses! Look on my affliction and my pain, And forgive all my sins. (Psalm 25.16 – 18, NKJV)

“The troubles of my prostate have enlarged; bring me out of my distresses! Look on my affliction and my pain, and forgive all my sins.”

I’ll keep you posted!

Yesterday’s Read It! blog needs to be followed up with this story about Pope Francis asking folks to prevent Brain Rot by avoiding social media. Sean Craig, writing on the Daily Beast, January 27, 2025, reported:

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church calls on his followers to abstain from a lot. Pope Francis’ latest request: stop scrolling. The Vatican head, 88, told an audience at the Jubilee of the World of Communications in Rome at the weekend that too much social media should be avoided because it causes “brain rot”—or putrefazione cerebrale in the more elegant Italian. “Let’s put respect for the highest and noblest part of our humanity back in the center of our hearts, let’s avoid filling it with what rots and makes it rot,” he told an audience of thousands of writers and journalists. “The choices of each of us count, for example, in expelling that ‘brain rot’ caused by the addiction to continuous scrolling on social media, defined by the Oxford Dictionary as the word of the year.”

Good stuff. But I think the Pope missed it when he prescribed a cure:

The pontiff added that the “cure for this disease” is education, especially for young people to ensure they are equipped with media literacy and critical thinking beyond the pull of constantly refreshing feeds.

Education is fine, I guess, but I would say that the cure, for believers, is more time meditating on the Word! I wonder if Psalm 1.1 could apply to too much time on social media:

Oh, the joys of those who do not follow evil men’s advice, who do not hang around with sinners, scoffing at the things of God. (Psalm 1.1, TLB)

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers. (Psalm 1.1, NIV)

The cure is clear:

But they delight in doing everything God wants them to, and day and night are always meditating on his laws and thinking about ways to follow him more closely. They are like trees along a riverbank bearing luscious fruit each season without fail. Their leaves shall never wither, and all they do shall prosper. (Psalm 1.2, 3, TLB)

“Always meditating on his laws” results in “Their leaves shall never wither…” That is, no brain rot! (Our meditation on Psalm 19 also suggests no brain rot for those who are in the Word.)

Back to my son’s pastor:

Read it!

I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, As much as in all riches. I will meditate on Your precepts, And contemplate Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word. (Psalm 119.14 – 16, NKJV)

I thought about my ways, And turned my feet to Your testimonies. I made haste, and did not delay To keep Your commandments. (Psalm 119.59, 60, NKJV)

My son David recently sent me this description of his pastor’s sermon:

You would have loved …the sermon yesterday. Sermons are never perfect, but it was a great message on getting in the word, based on 2 Timothy 3.16-17:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (NIV84)

One profound and simple moment you would have enjoyed was when Pastor Jed, talking about “now what” once we believe the Word is important, said, “We over complicate things. Read it. Open the book.” The phrase “Read it” was literally a bullet on the screen by itself.

I love it:

READ IT

I wrote him back: “Love it. Doesn’t matter what you believe about the Word if you don’t read it. By contrast, I listened to an online sermon recently that was well-crafted with a lot of good points, but I have no idea what he wanted us to do.”

If you’re a pastor, I beg you, keep it practical. Tell the folks what you (or God!) want them to do. Don’t assume they can figure it out on their own. I wrote about the importance of practical teaching, quoting Andy Stanley:

Practical teaching that moves people to action is one of the primary things God uses to grow our faith...That being the case, our messages and lesson preparations are not complete until we know what we want our audiences to do with what they are about to hear. To grow our congregants’ faith, we must preach and teach for life change. – Andy Stanley, from Deep and Wide

If you’re not a pastor, encourage your pastor to keep it practical and actionable. Don’t demand that your pastor teach you some deep truth you don’t already know. And make every effort to apply at least one thing from every sermon you hear.

And no matter how your pastor preaches, you are responsible to do with the Word what my son David’s pastor recommended:

READ IT

And, put it into practice:

But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. (Matthew 7.26, MSG)

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. (James 1.22, NIV)

Back to Psalm 24 for a quick meditation:

The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein. (Psalm 24.1, NKJV)

“The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness,” which includes spectacular beauty on an ordinary winter day. We didn’t get much snow last weekend, and it wasn’t super cold (for Colorado), but we did get a haze that nicely frosted all the trees before the sun came out. I was looking for just the right place for a picture, and I found it on my own street, returning from an errand:

Have you entered the treasury of snow, or have you seen the treasury of hail…? (Job 38.22, NKJV)

He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes. (Psalm 147.16, NKJV)

Psalm 24 has several memorable parts starting with:

The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein. For He has founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the waters. (Psalm 24.1, 2, NKJV)

“He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters” takes us back to the first words in the Bible:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light… (Genesis 1.1 – 3, NKJV)

Then something reminiscent of Psalm 15’s answer to the question: LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill?

Here’s Psalm 24’s answer:

Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the LORD, And righteousness from the God of his salvation. (Psalm 24.3 – 5, NKJV)

We New Testament believers are tempted to say, “I can’t have clean hands and a pure heart, that’s why we have grace.” True at one level, but we shouldn’t let ourselves off the hook so easily. Jesus said,

Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5.48, NKJV)

The Apostle Paul told Governor Felix:

So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man. (Acts 24.16, NIV)

And, as we shared the other day, the Apostle John wrote:

All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. (1 John 3.3, NIV)

And we remind ourselves that no matter what is going on, the King of Glory is reigning:

⁷ Lift up your heads, O you gates!
And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
⁸ Who is this King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
The Lord mighty in battle.
⁹ Lift up your heads, O you gates!
Lift up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
¹⁰ Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
He is the King of glory. Selah (Psalm 24.7 – 10, NKJV)

It’s worth the three minutes to listen to the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square sing “Lift Up Your Heads, O Ye Gates” from Handel’s Messiah from the magnificent 21,000-seat Conference Center of the LDS Church. (I attended a secular concert there about 10 years ago. It’s quite a spectacular building and for this song, reminds us of God’s majesty.)

The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.” (Revelation 11.15 – 17, NIV)